To Remain in Love

WORD 2day: Thursday, 5th week in Easter time

May 22, 2025 - Acts 15: 7-21; John 15: 9-11

Peter, Paul, Barnabas, James... what great names in today's first reading. All heavy weights in faith, the greatest apostles coming together to determine the future course of the Way. The Congregation that was gathered was divided. They had differences of opinions. There was a traditional group, infact James was part of it. There was a progressive group and Paul and Barnabas were championing it. Peter was the bridge, the "pontiff" - right enough! And we see James, the first Bishop of Jerusalem steering the entire discussion in such a godly fashion.

The whole argument was resolved on one fact: what is important is not circumcision nor uncircumcision (cf. Gal 5:6; 6:15) but faith working through love; what is important is REMAINING IN HIS LOVE. That is the crux of Christianity. It is not rules or rubrics, it is not law or canonical fulfillments, but the love of Christ that gives meaning to our lives.

True joy that the Lord gives comes from what we are; it comes from the fact that we are loved, that we are accepted unconditionally and that we are united to the One who never changes! It is not the various rules and regulations that we uphold that matter but love! Love is all that matters! And in that love that God has for us, we find our true joy, complete joy!

Anything inspired by true and genuine love for God and for the people of God, leads us to true life in God. Anything that divides the people of God and brings hatred among them, is not from God and is against the Spirit of the Lord.

Conflict Resolution - the Christian Model

WORD 2day: Wednesday, 5th week in the Easter time

May 21, 2025: Acts 15: 1-6; John 15: 1-8

We see a conflict arising in the Early Christian Community - two factions: the Conservatives and the Progressives. When the conflict arose, they immediately fall back to the roots, they come together and resolve it. The moment conflict arose they thought of getting together and not splitting into groups - that is a Christian Attitude. 

What we see today in the first reading is what we could call the Council of Jerusalem, the first ever Council of the Church... the first precedent to a special jubilee we celebrate this year: the 1700th year of Council of Nicea, a very crucial Council that took place in 325 AD. Councils have been a Christian way of looking at a common resolution during conflicts - steps that have led to the spirit of synodality we speak of much today. 

A truly Christian attitude of conflict resolution is an attitude of unifying, a promotion of solidarity, a strengthening of bond and an assurance of fellowship. The growing number of denominations and divisions within the so-called Christian Community, is a counter witness, says the erstwhile encyclical Evangelii Nuntiandi. The greatest scandal to the world is a divided Church.

It is not so difficult for us to get back to our communion even amidst all conflicts because we are all branches grafted on to a single vine: Jesus Christ! I am the vine says Jesus today, inviting us all to resolve our differences in him. The more we are ready to get back to Christ and remain united in the One Lord, the more Christian we remain. 

Moments when I begin to contemplate division, I am disregarding the vine I am grafted on to. Remaining in Christ is a challenging task indeed - it may at times prove boring and monotonous and not immediate in bearing the results that are expected. But it is the key to being disciples of Christ and that alone can prove effective in any sort of conflict resolution! 

Peace - Truth or Dare!

WORD 2day: Tuesday, 5th week in Easter time

May 20, 2025: Acts 14: 19-28; John 14: 27-31a

There is a game that younger generation plays - truth or dare! You say the truth or accept the dare - that is the rule of the game. Peace that Christ seems is something like that! Let us reflect.  

Peace is the first gift of the Risen Lord: peace be with you was the salutation always! That is how our new Holy Father began his Papacy too. What kind of a peace are we speaking of here? Peace would mean lack of conflicts and an absence of turbulence, in ordinary terms. But for Jesus it is different. That is why he seems very particular in explaining to the apostles that the peace that he gives us, is not the same as the peace that the world thinks. In simple terms, Christ-ian peace, is quite different from the peace that the world powers and organisations speak of, though they do nothing even about ìt. Anyway, we are not to sit on judgement on others! 

Peace, according to the mind of Christ, is not lack of conflicts but it is a victory over all conflicts, it is overcoming all the inner, interpersonal, societal and universal conflicts! It is not merely an absence of turbulence but a transcending of all turbulence, a rising above all disturbance and a resolution of all crises, not an absence of them. We see this clearly in the lives of Paul, Barnabas and other apostles who seem to perfectly understand the peace of the Lord. One trouble over, they were up for the next. 

In our times too, it is easier to give into the utopian longing for peace. Peace is in no way staying clear of crises, but it is staying calm in the midst of a crisis. At times we take the easiest way out of things... find alternative meanings and convenient descriptions to justify our comfort zones and complacent lives. Peace comes from facing the truth; if we are not ready to face the truth, of course we have to face the dare, as the game we referred to. 

Some times in families and among friends, we stay conveniently out of the lives of people and define our own boundaries, without really getting into true and difficult relationships. Peace is not staying away from misunderstandings or mishaps, but living through them with the daring Spirit of Christ, to encounter persons, to live our lives to the full, in spite of the troubles that are foreseen! Can we? 

For the apostles and the first Christians, peace was in the Lord and nothing could stop them from making it their own. Amidst all the turbulence, disturbance and crises they enjoyed a peace and serenity that no one even comprehended. That is why today, more than being a blessing, the peace of Christ is a dare! Do we dare to share that peace, the peace of the Lord?

Phase Two - Perseverence

WORD 2day: Monday, 5th week in Easter time

May 19, 2025: Acts 14: 5-18 ; John 14: 21-26

Jesus initiates the next phase, the Phase 2... and he promises his Spirit as One who will reside in our hearts and instruct us of the right thing to be done at the right time. The Spirit of truth and counsel, the Spirit of strength and determination. It is the Spirit that makes the apostles and disciples so strong and powerful even in the face of the plotters and persecutors!

The Jews and the non Jews together plot to get rid of the apostles but what triumphed was not the plot but the power of God. The Power of God was getting more and more manifest in the life and works of the apostles and they were bearing an unimaginable witness to the Christ-experience. 

What did the apostles do to acquire such power as to stand before the authorities and systems which seemed so frightening earlier - it was their perseverance. They were threatened, they were beaten up, they were arrested and they were flogged, but nothing could stop them for living their life for the Lord and for the Lord's message. 

The plots will abound even in our life, but if we are strong in our mind and heart, these plots will be overcome by the power of the Lord, invested within me by the Lord. Make us strong O Lord.

THE PROMISE OF THE NEW THINGS

The new commandment and new outlook!

5th Sunday in Easter time - May 18, 2025

Acts 14: 21-27; Revelation 21: 1-5; John 13: 31-33, 34-35

Behold I make all things new – that promise of the Lord is the core of the Easter experience… the Lord promises each one of us, a new world, a new beginning, a new life! That is fundamentally the Resurrection experience. Whatever happens around us in the world, we cannot give into hopelessness or desperation! No, we cannot! “Never lose hope. Do not let yourself be robbed of hope!”, the beloved deceased holy father, Pope Francis had insisted always... Yes, our call is to assist the Creator to make all things new – to behold a new heaven and a new earth! 

The Liturgy today presents to us the promise from the Father to make everything new… that is a promise, and not just that! It is also an invitation, a challenge to assist at this renovation. The promise and the process to renovation, goes through two channels of what we can and what we ought to be involved in – to take into serious consideration, the new commandment given to us and the new outlook offered to us!

While the second reading makes us aware of the promise that the Lord has for us – to make everything new for us – the Gospel and the first reading beckon us to realise our role in the task, outlining the way to accomplish the task, to realise the promise – a line of action with two key elements: the new commandment and the new outlook!  

As said already, we cannot expect that the renovation of the world could happen all by itself, automatically. It cannot. We are called to be agents of that renovation, the reconstruction that has to be taken up in and through, a new commandment – the new commandment given by the Lord, that we see in the Gospel today. The Commandment of love, that is the salvific node that we have from the Risen Lord. When we truly love each other, we shall be agents of renovation of this world, a world that is so much affected by selfishness, indifference and hatred.

The New Commandment is to love, to love each other without any reserve. There can be no love greater than giving one’s life for the one who is loved. And that is exactly what the Lord did, and that is what he leaves as an example for us to follow.  The new commandment is to love and that love alone can renew the world. The world stands in need of love, a love that is selfless, a love that is  life-giving, a love that is salvific, a love that creates, recreates and re-enlivens the whole humanity, the world, and the whole universe!

Commandment of Love, comes as the essence and the summary of the whole Christian presence. Christ speaks of the time that he will not be with his disciples and immediately presents them with the Commandment of love, as if to say – where there is love there is Christ. The corollary is more significant and consequential – where there is no love there is no Christ. “By this all will know that you are my disciples – if you have love for one another!” One cannot build the renewed world, without a genuine Christ-like love in one’s heart.

The new things that the Lord promises to make are not merely external… they are more about the new outlook that are created within us. What makes us truly agents of renewal of the world, is not so much what we can do out there, as much as what we can do within us: bringing out the new outlook that we need to have within us: the outlook of the Risen Lord. “We all have to endure hardships” in order that we can become truly agents of the new things that the Lord promises us.

Today there are many who propose projects and make manifestos, those who gather masses and garner public opinion, those who initiate movements and influence the society – all in the name of creating a new social order or creating a new world, in the name of progress and development. The Word today gives us the touchstone of Christian outlook - the commandment of love. St. Augustine said it in beautiful words, "Love, and do what you will. If you keep silence, do it out of love. If you cry out, do it out of love. If you refrain from punishing, do it out of love." 

It is this love, the new commandment that can create a new outlook within us and this new outlook alone can lead us towards being agents of a new world, agents of the new things that we can hope for, from the hands of the Lord. We have no right absolutely to expect a “making of new things altogether” unless we are ready to obey the new commandment, and adapt to the new outlook that the Risen Lord offers us: the outlook of caring for the least, the concern for those who are suffering, the commitment to the marginalized, the prophecy that challenges the neglected justice and denied rights – these which are inalienable part of the process of making everything new – the Lord will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain any more. And the Lord will do it through only you and me! Every hand of a disciple of Christ should wipe the tears in the eyes of those in agony. Every word of a Christian should give new life to those who have lost hope. Every community of faith should sustain those who mourn and cry in society around itself.

And today, we see that there are no coincidences… a providential event is happening… there is a new thing happening today: the new Pope who takes up his Petrine Responsibility today! As Pope Leo XIV takes up his responsibility today, we have a responsibility, not just one  responsibility, but a triple responsibility – to heed to our call to the new commandment of love, to develop within us a new outlook of the Risen Lord, and thirdly, to allow the Lord to make use of us as agents of the new world that the Lord wishes to create through us.

Behold I make everything new… is not just a promise, but a commitment, a task on our part to take up, on behalf of the Lord and the people of God

Traces of Eternal Life

WORD 2day: Saturday, 4th week in Easter time

May 17, 2025: Acts 13: 44-52; John 14: 7-14

These days we are listening to the Word from St. John. For St. John, Eternal Life is the concrete difference that Christ makes in our lives. John uses the term "eternal life" 18 times in his Gospel - that's the kind of importance that the community learnt from Christ himself.   

How do we understand this eternal life... is it a life that is at the end of this life? That's how our human mind calculates. But eternal life is life that is timeless. That is a gift that God has already placed within us. We need to grow more and more aware of it - the Risen Lord is a reminder of that need. 

There are traces of the "eternal within us" and there are steps to become aware of it: 

The first step towards it is, Recognising the gift that our life is, without forgetting the role of the Giver! We need to recognise that life is a gift and a gift from our Creator who has loved us into existence. 

The second step is to live life the way the Lord wants me. Just a few days earlier the Word instucted us, that the Father's commandments, the Father plan for us, is eternal life. This consists of living my life to the full, living it to the fullness of what is expected of me. 

The third step is to be ready to give that life up for the sake of the One who gave that life to me. That is the highest union with Life itself: the fullness of eternal life where we realise the Life within us, the Lord within us and say like Jesus, the Father and I are one!

If we realise it, we shall behold the Eternal life, so lovingly gifted to us - failing which, we are the sole losers!

The "Way" of life

WORD 2day: Friday, 4th week in Easter time

May 16, 2025: Acts 13: 26-33; John 14: 1-6

Troubled hearts and confused minds... these are not rare cases to find these days. The degree may vary but every person of our time seems to be troubled with something or the other. 

The Lord would look direct into our eyes and ask us: why are your hearts troubled and why do you go confused? Do not let your hearts be troubled; do not let go of your trust in me, the Lord invites us today. 

I remember once during our Theological studies, in our Scripture class, the professor said "the Word has the answer for everything". And a student retorted, "why then are there confusions and misunderstandings?" The Professor without any hesitation responded, "that's because we don't have the right questions!"

When things seem to be going wrong, when there are pressing issues that confuse, we need to ask the right questions! Who am I? What am I upto? Where is my ultimate destiny? What is the grand perspective within which my life is unfolding? There is answer to all these in the Word today: our Way! The Way is ready with an answer for everything in our life: let not our hearts be troubled. 

It is not so easy to remain with hearts untroubled, the Word clarifies more, unless we have an ardent trust in the Lord. Trusting in the Lord would mean to keep walking. It is not just to stope everything and say, until I get an answer I shall not proceed... instead it is to hold on to the way and keep walking, walking along with the Way, and we shall see life unfold.  

Memories that are Salvific

WORD 2day: Thursday, 4th week in Easter time

May 15, 2025: Acts 13: 13-25; John 13: 16-20

The Word today insists upon our memories! This was one great problem with the people of Israel - they never remembered enough, all that the Lord did to them. The walk through the red sea was soon forgotten, they complained about no food; the fall of manna was soon forgotten, they detested the monotony of food; the quails were soon taken for granted, they complained about no water; the water from the rock was soon forgotten they wanted a god amidst them... that is why the Lord brings in the right corrective for them: the Covenant! The codified memory of the way the Lord loved them!

Jesus wants to leave a memory too... he offers us a way to keep his memory alive: in serving each other; in loving each other in concrete terms; in reaching out to each other, not for our needs but for the other in need, or the other to be loved!

The antonym to this memory we refer to here, is not forgetfulness but taking for granted! We get so used to things that happen around us, that we do not see anything "extraordinary" in them. Beginning with basic things like waking up to the day, and being able to breathe in and breathe out, and upto the greatest wonder of seeing the simple bread change into the body of Christ right before our eyes.. how many things we take for granted on a daily basis, and how many persons we take for granted too!

Like children, we are called to keep our sense of wonder alive and active - taking nothing, no one, for granted, but with wonder and gratitude, recognising every little good that comes our way. Let us have a wonder-filled day ahead!

I chose you!

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

May 14, 2025: Celebrating St Mathias, the Apostle

Acts 1: 15-17, 20-26; John 15: 9-17

Every relationship is a response! Relationships can never be forced upon persons. When I wish to relate to a person, I choose to relate to the person and then I leave the response from the other side to the freedom of that person! Only then there is a healthy relationship that blooms. It is the same with God's choice too!

You have not chosen me, I chose you, reminds Jesus today! With the beautiful example of Mathias and Barsabbas, Jesus brings out another element of the election theology! When God chooses, God chooses individuals (not masses), for a unique purpose and specific plan. As God reminds us through Jeremiah, God has a plan for each of us (Jer 29:11) and God alone knows what the plan is and how it would come through. All that we need to do is submit, surrender to that plan and walk by it.

And when God chooses, God chooses not for merely conferring a privilege, or a position or power; but for commitment, suffering and for giving one's life for the other! As the readings of the past Sunday reminded us, we cannot stop with thinking we are chosen therefore we are special! We are chosen, we are special... but it entails further, that we are specially chosen to strive, fight, struggle, suffer and thus, usher in the Reign of God, wherever we are.

Mathias is today counted into the band of apostles. Of course a privilege, but with that came the burden of being a Messenger of the Word, the burden of being the Elder in the Community and the burden of being a Shepherd of God's flock. St. Mathias is an inspiring example which tells us, the Lord counts on us... the Lord has chosen us and wishes to count us into the number of his apostles!

Yes, the Word and the Saint of today speak to us: You are chosen! Be glad, but be also prepared for everything that it entails!

Our Blessed Mother of Fatima

On 13th of May 1917, Mother Mary appeared to the three children - Jacinta, Francis and Lucia and continued to do so, for 6 consecutive months on the same 13th day of the month. On 13th May 1981 John Paul II was miraculously protected from an attempt on his life. On May 13th 2000, John Paul II beatified Jacinta (she was 9 when she died) and Francis (he was 10 when he died)... they were canonized this day, in 2017, the 100th anniversary of the first apparition. Lucia died as a cloistered nun on 13th February, 2005. 

Many ask a question, is it not too much to claim that Mary keeps doing such powerful things? Is it not a mere clamorous attribution of the Catholic church? The Lord has prepared us for this: 'I tell you solemnly, whoever believes in me will perform the same works as I do myself, he (or she) will perform even greater works'... can we think of a person who believed more than our Blessed Mother?

She is the most favoured daughter of God and the specially chosen Mother of God. What a beautiful mystery she embodies! Let us pay heed to her message: repent, pray, consecrate yourself to God... the Mother would tell us today - you may think you are being threatened by the worst things in the world, but be assured you belong to God. 

May the Queen of Holy Rosary, our Blessed Mother of Fatima, pray for us and for the entire world.